Tag Archives: Barry Stafford

A few more days and the December 1st deadline for hockey to start will come and go, and will join the beginning-of-the season deadline, the November full-season deadline, the seventy-game season deadline, and the Winter Classic deadline. Soon it will become the fifty-game deadline, then half-a-season deadline.

Who knows? Maybe in several months we’ll have the beginning-of-the season deadline to be concerned with all over again.

Just close it off and shut it down completely. Quit those long, drawn out four and five hour marathon sessions. And I know, the people who sell popcorn and souvenirs and all the other things involved in off-shoots of NHL hockey can say it’s easy to say but what about us, I say just write it off as a terrible year, we all sometimes have terrible years, and hopefully you’ll rebound next year. Or the year after.

And I realize this isn’t as important as your livelihoods at stake, but for me personally, I’m now posting grade two drawings and sexiest man in the world stories, so we’re all suffering in different ways.

But all is not doom and gloom for me. Not by a long shot. It clicked when I saw that longtime Edmonton Oilers equipment manager Barry Stafford has been included in the Hockey Hall of Fame Trainers Wall of Honour, which makes it official – if I finally get the Habs stick boy job, I have a shot at someday being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame!

I just need to get the job, work hard, get those sticks lined up properly and out to the players in record speed, and who knows, if I can sustain longevity, maybe the day will come when I get the phone call and have to scramble to find a tux. And if and when I do get the call, I’ll include you in my speech. It’ll all boil down to how proficient I am. Players are particular about how they get the shaft.

You see, this is what is great about the sport. A guy rises from nothing, gets the job, and ends up in the Hall of Fame as an excellent stick boy. Maybe down the road, someone who did something not quite as important as stick boy, but still good, could even get in. Like Paul Henderson.